Inferring the origin and genetic diversity of the introduced wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations in Argentina: an approach from mitochondrial markers

SAGUA, MARA I.; FIGUEROA, C. E.; ACOSTA, D. B.; FERNÁNDEZ, G. P.; CARPINETTI, B. N.; BIROCHIO, D.; MERINO, MARIANO L.

Mammal Research

Karol Zub

Lugar: Białowieża; Año: 2018

2199-2401

The Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758) was introduced into Argentina at the beginning of the twentieth centurywhen individuals from Europe were taken to La Pampa province for hunting purposes. Starting from there, a dispersal processbegan due to the invasive characteristics of the species and to human-mediated translocations. The main objective of this studywas to characterize for the first time, the phylogenetic relationships among wild boars from Argentina with those from Uruguay,Europe, Asia, and the Near East, along with diverse domestic pig breeds in order to corroborate the historical information aboutthe origin of the local populations. To this end, we used mitochondrial Control Region and Cytochrome b sequences fromsampled Argentinian wild boars and retrieved from GenBank. The results showed that the majority of the Argentinian wild boarpopulations descend from European lineages, in particular of the E1 clade, according to the historical records. Remarkably, thepopulation of El Palmar National Park had Asian origin that could be attributed to hybridization with local domestic pigs or tounrecorded translocations. Finally, genetic diversity in Argentinian populations was lower than in Europe and Uruguay meaningthat wild boar in Argentina is still under the influence of founder effect and has experienced minor genetic introgression fromdomestic pigs, representing in this sense a reservoir of the original wild boar genetic variability.